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Murder charges proceed in north Boulder shooting

Cody Nelson and Miriam Nayeh to be arraigned May 25

By Alex Burness

Staff Writer

Posted:
03/30/2016 10:27:01 PM MDT

Updated:
03/30/2016 10:35:58 PM MDT

Cody Nelson and Miriam Nayeh, charged in connection with the shooting death of Andrew Duncan at the Ponderosa Pines mobile home park in north Boulder last month, are seen in court on Feb. 11. (Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)

Public defenders say that a fatal shooting last month in a north Boulder trailer park was an act of self-defense against an incensed man intent on beating the estranged pregnant mother of his child.

But prosecutors see an alibi filled with holes, and stand behind their classification of the event as first-degree murder.

On Wednesday, following an afternoon of testimony from a sheriff's deputy and four detectives, Boulder District Judge Maria Berkenkotter ultimately upheld the charges against Cody Nelson and Miriam Nayeh, the pair accused in the shooting.

Both were set to be arraigned May 25.

While attorneys offer differing takes on motive, the general narrative from that day is not in dispute among officers or in the courtroom; 31-year-old Andrew Duncan, they agree, arrived at Ponderosa Pines mobile home park shortly after 8 a.m. Feb. 5, and entered the trailer of Nelson, 51.

Nelson was housing the semi-transient Nayeh, 31, who was six-to-seven months pregnant at the time and did not wish to see Duncan, the father of her child and a man she describes as abusive.

Within an hour, Duncan was pronounced dead, allegedly shot with a handgun nearly a dozen times by Nelson, at a range of no more than five feet, in the middle of an icy road in the trailer park.

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Nelson is charged with first-degree murder, while Nayeh is charged with being an accessory to murder and attempting to influence a public servant.

What's now in question is whether the shooting was preceded by violence from Duncan, including, as the two suspects have claimed, dragging Nayeh out of the trailer by her hair and berating her over her heroin use.

Witnesses who live in the park seem to offer conflicting reports, and, during Wednesday's hearing, Nelson and a very pregnant Nayeh sat in court as prosecutors and the suspects' respective public defenders attempted to fill in blanks with testimony from the five Boulder County sheriff's officials called to the stand.

Detective Jeff Pelletier testified that Nelson explained in an interview that he woke on Feb. 5 to Duncan kicking him in the head. He claimed to have seen "tussling" in the trailer bathroom between Duncan and Nayeh, and he told Pelletier he reached over Duncan's head, "trying to gouge out his eyes."

Nelson described Duncan dragging Nayeh out of the unit.

"He went to find his piece," Pelletier said. "He put on his boots, his jacket and he went outside and shot him."

Meanwhile, a couple trailers away, a neighbor named Thomas Pickett was eating breakfast and watching television. He told Detective Don Dillard that he heard some arguing and a woman yelling, "Stop it!," "Get back here!" and "Give it back!," among other things.

Dillard testified that Pickett told him he watched Nelson shoot Duncan from nearly point-blank range, and that Nayeh was not in his sight at that point.

According to other testimony, multiple other eyewitnesses told police they saw Nayeh go up to Duncan's body post-shooting and take something from his person. Pelletier told Berkenkotter that the investigation into the shooting was hindered by an inability to collect evidence that Nayeh allegedly tampered with.

Detective JoAnna Shuler interviewed Nayeh after the shooting and said that when she stepped out of the trailer momentarily, Nayeh started praying and talking to herself, and was caught on audio recording doing so.

Among the alleged utterances: "Please lord, God, I need you to get my story straight," the phrase "any discrepancies," and "Jesus, I don't know what to do."

Deputy District Attorney Lisa Saccomono noted the importance of this alleged recording.

"When she was alone, Ms. Nayeh made statements about getting her story straight," Saccomono said, adding that the evidence some believe Nayeh stole from the dead body "would be valuable to this investigation, and it's something she deliberately removed."

"Obviously, this is not a case of whodunit," Nelson's public defender, Jennifer Engelmann, told Berkenkotter toward the hearing's end. "I think the defense in this case will be something of a self-defense."

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